


Trapped! on a Gentle Stroll

by Etnoe



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Being Lost, Epic Friendship, Gen, Magic and Science, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 06:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26967277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: "I did kind of wonder what it was like to lose the world," Sokka said.Back on the lion turtle's island again ... wherever that is.
Relationships: Aang & Sokka (Avatar)
Kudos: 5





	Trapped! on a Gentle Stroll

* * *

  
  
"I did kind of wonder what it was like to lose the world," Sokka said - not even to Aang, really, more as if he was musing out loud way - and wandered off, zigzagging as he looked around.

"What?" Aang said, too loudly and a beat slow in reacting, and then took off in an air-boosted run to catch up. He'd been quite a few beats slow, he thought, since Sokka still needed a crutch to compensate for his injured leg yet was already out of sight.

Sokka wasn't far ahead, at least - squeezing through a dense patch of saplings threaded with vines put Aang right beside him. Sokka was using Boomerang to scratch at the moss on a much thicker and older tree, looking suspicious of it and the bare patch he'd made on the bark. Then he abruptly sniffed the air and tested the wind direction (south-east, Aang could have told him more easily than his dampened finger could - the breeze was hardly strong in the middle of the lion turtle's forest). Then, with an excited sound, Sokka sat flat on the ground and began using Boomerang to dig.

"Um, Sokka, about ... the world? The whole world, is that what you meant?" Pole to pole and people to people; an amazing immensity that was still, harmonious peace and all, in almost more need than could be borne. Aang gulped. "We _lost it_?"

"Pfft, maybe you did." Sokka took a break to inspect Boomerang, apologetically thumbing the dirtied point, and dug with more care. "I just got dragged along by the oogedy-boogedy mind invitation from what is apparently not a spirit. I'm trusting you on that one, by the way, since you have prior experience, but considering that Mr Lion Turtle got us waking up here after a sleep-rowing session, without drowning? I'm not ruling spirit stuff out, either."

He made the wiggly fingers at Aang that he often used to indicate 'magic' and 'disdain'. It was very normal.

It was not enough.

"What do you MEAN, we LOST THE _world_? Is, is this seriously what happened last time? And I didn't even know? I knew you couldn't _find_ me but I thought the lion turtle must have been taking a long route and the shirshu just missed my scent! OBVIOUSLY this place is weird and not weird like the spirit world's weird, no, that kind is fine and THERE it's easy to get HELP! But this is a different kind and it's because it's not even the world? Where I'm supposed to be! And _you_ , and _Boomerang_! And didn't we kind of STEAL that BOAT and that's the _opposite_ of helping people, which we're supposed to be doing _on the WORLD_!"

"Buddy! Aang, buddy, ease up, your voice isn't meant to be breaking that badly yet..."

For the next while Sokka was very solicitous and patient, until at last Aang straightened up, sighing away the last of his urge to breathe too fast, and gave him a sheepish smile.

"I'm all right now, Sokka. Thanks."

"That's good, that's good..." But, from the distracted look Sokka wore, he wasn't thinking about the situation as simply as he was saying. Aang began a breath control exercise just in case.

"We barely had time to think about it - when you disappeared, and we were hoping the shirshu would find you," Sokka went on. "Otherwise I could have had a lot more to say about June telling us, oh, if the most terrifying pet ever can't tell you where the avatar is, he can't be in this world! But now you're telling me you think she was right? We're really somewhere else, somewhere that's ..." He struggled for a word, staring narrowly at the vegetation, the patches of sky visible above, the spots where he'd been working away. "Undefined?"

"Well ... only until we ask the lion turtle! I'm sure it's not some big secret. We could totally ask about that!"

Aang was trying to keep an upbeat attitude, but mostly he was staring too, at a spot beside the dug-up patch of earth and the tree missing a tuft of moss - at the crutch Sokka had rested against the tree.

His leg was still in a splint. If he needed to run it would be difficult. If he merely wanted to feel safe, it would be harder for him, and that wasn't fair.

"Oh no," Sokka groaned. "Oh no. I can't stay!"

Aang rushed to reassure him. "Don't worry. I'm absolutely sure we won't have to!"

"But seriously, we can't leave that early either, okay? But ... maybe we should, with the actual world being in need on a daily basis and all. That really is something to be concerned about."

Sokka gave Aang a guilty look. Aang tried to figure out how any of this at all was something that Sokka could carry blame for.

At a loss, he ended up giving him a grin so it would seem like he didn't have any serious worries, and it seemed to work - Sokka took heart.

"What we'll do is, we'll take the route you remember to where you spoke to the lion turtle last time, but we walk _really slowly_."

At that, Aang went to get Sokka's crutch so that they could make their escape ... at a gentle walking pace. Apparently? He stared wide-eyed as Sokka ranted.

"We're in a place where we don't even know what could be different! Everything! All the things! Aang, I don't know if there are bugs in the soil!"

"Is that ... important?" he asked, handing the crutch back.

"I don't know! I only just started learning about bugs in soil from Toph and a chatty agricultural minister's aide! It's not the kind of thing that's a big deal in the South Pole!"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess it wouldn't be, most of the time..."

"But their presence in this kind of climate, I think we can both agree as world travellers, would be expected. Yet I have not found any! And there's the sunlight." Sokka's voice grew hushed tone. "This place has got to share the same sunlight as our world, right? I mean ... I don't even know how it would be able to do anything else. I don't know how to test that. Oh _no_. Aang, how could I test that?!"

He tossed the crutch away again to grab Aang's shoulders. "Don't get distracted by that, okay? The sun thing is in a whole different category. Get distracted by everything else instead. Anything you notice could be key to understanding this place and an absolutely ground-breaking discovery in general. And if anything feels spirity, tell me that too! I guess I can make notes about that, even if it's not exactly useful otherwise. Uh ... useful for non-benders," Sokka amended kindly. "All right! Let's get meandering!"

It took a good long while before Sokka was willing to get out of that little patch of ground, and for Aang to stop being surprised and realise how much he appreciated watching this. He happily offered up an empty money pouch that he had in a pocket for Sokka to put some stones into, for testing later to see if they were like stones in the world where they lived.

Sokka talked about the way this place had to be connected, for the lion turtle to care about their world so much that it had spoken to Aang, and that sages and heroes of times past had spoken to them; he kept wondering about the sunlight issue despite assuring Aang that they were better off not tackling it with no equipment, mentioning that he would love something to measure angles or time with; he claimed that the air on the island felt thicker.

"It does not," Aang insisted, and kept pushing it with little hops and palm pushes as they progressed.

"Then why are you testing it?"

"To show it totally doesn't! And if it does, it's normal humidity."

"Which is why you keep looking so doubtful."

Aang laughed. It wasn't in response, but because he had to let the feeling out.

"Hey, Sokka. You're really just ... curious about this place? Because I didn't want to drag you into anything. So I'm sorry if being here bothers you at all."

He almost added how much of a joy it was to have Sokka here - reminding him of himself when he'd travelled to new places, and of other nomads exploring and rediscovering too - and just to have the strangeness of being called again tempered by Sokka's presence and his curiosity and cleverness. Maybe later. Sokka would appreciate it more in a mood that was a touch quieter; if the sun set on this island, that would be a good time for it.

"The lion turtle was good news last time - I'm willing to extend him the benefit of the doubt now. I'm sure we'll be sent off with important advice and it will be fine." Actually, Sokka looked a little dubious at that. There was still a lot to fix in their world, after all, and new advice or a new task could certainly be a potential difficulty.

His expression changed as he looked around once again. More determined, energised in how ready he was to know more, and softer.

"Besides, this is kind of like the old, simpler times. Except a lot more relaxing. Let's enjoy it here, you and me - no being chased."

The island rumbled beneath them, eventually, in a call that was perhaps a growl or perhaps a laugh. Of course, they answered the call; by a dash of luck, their own natures and most of all, by being able to grin to each other, they were happy to do so.


End file.
